


Freedom & Isolation, Destruction & Revival

by aurorakitty5



Series: Cycling on the Path of Life [9]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: (technically) - Freeform, Angst, Arcobaleno kinda suck ngl, BAMF Skull (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, I have never tagged seriously, Jason Todd-centric, Skull (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!)-centric, Skull has some issues and so does Jason, Verde (mentioned) - Freeform, also the Arcobaleno will be arriving soon (perhaps next chapter idk), i've. never written them, idk are the batfam too OOC?, ok yeah it kinda gets funny at the end but idk ig it's Jason's Trauma Manifesting, sharing is caring ig, vague childhood trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:49:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26388952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurorakitty5/pseuds/aurorakitty5
Summary: Clouds were known for being aloof and cold, and as much as he broke the mold, there were some things that were just ingrained.
Series: Cycling on the Path of Life [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1443277
Comments: 15
Kudos: 431
Collections: A Collection of Beloved Inserts, Blank Slate 2.0, Identity Crisis





	1. Chapter 1

* * *

He always had simmering anger within him.

As he grew up he figured it was just a phase, a byproduct of his less-than-stellar childhood and his yearning for independence and freedom. Once he reached his teenage years, he figured it was just part of the teen experience, the bitterness towards his family and the chains keeping him rooted in something or other. Like when he was younger, he searched for freedom, for something that he could lose himself in and define himself by, an identity to call his own.

As soon as he turned 18, he ran away to join the circus. There was an achingly haunting presence surrounding the circus, something that was just out of reach no matter how hard he tried to grab it. It reminded him of loss, however it was a loss that he couldn't truly perceive, something lost to the universe.

It felt isolating.

At 19, he became Skull, grabbed an identity and threw his everything behind it, dedicated himself to his stunts and his showmanship. Acrobatics, flips, jumps, he learned them all and it was only when he was performing in front of crowds did he feel alive. He couldn't feel the chains holding him to the ground, the manacles that shackled his freedom and his talents. He was reborn again into a new person, his old name and his backstory erased and replaced with the gleaming story of Skull de Mort.

When he saw his purple flames for the first time, it sent him into a deep panic, some deeply burried issue he was unaware he had rearing its head. It took a couple more experiments and a few more panic attacks before he could finally take a look at the flames. They reminded him of being in the air, of doing flips and performances, of his shows and his identity. They called him in a way that little else could, and when he was alone, he would often light a small spark and relax into the feelings it gave. It filled him with more determination, and a deeper understanding of his desire and hunt for freedom.

However, all good things must come to an end.

When he was summoned by Checkerface a few months later, he was livid. He was going to be shackled to a group, no freedom, and a looming presence that he knew would offer him nothing good. It was like his childhood all over again, and he refused to be brought into such a miserable group. There was nothing for him to enjoy, not the sky he would be given, not his fellow elements, and not even Checkerface's offer to remove the block on his mind that he knew was something important to him. There was nothing for him but forced servitude and an agonizing burn for freedom. However, Checkerface didn't care what he thought.

Meeting the others sent a sharp pain through his head, a foggy memory he had no recollection of briefly fading in over the people. However, as quickly as it came it went, and he was left standing in the hostile room looking like an idiot. He had brought his helmet, but took it off as soon as he entered the room, placing it on the floor in-between his feet. The sky, Luce, offered cookies and refreshment that no one took, and off-handily mentioned that _Oh, Skull is a civilian, please make him feel welcomed here._

That grated on him.

Who was she to tell the group, the group that was already so hostile to each other, that he was weak enough to be potentially picked on? He kept his gaze down on the table but used a trick he had learned early into his discovery of flames, and propagated a heavy feeling of anger and crushing disgust into the room, smirking briefly when the sky startled. Minute tension released from his shoulders, and that was when the sun pounced.

_Hey, Lackey, what the hell was that?_

Skull blinked up, eyes wide and while his face took on a mask of confusion, there was a glare in his eyes and tension by the corners of his mouth. He thought about answering, but decided against it and ended up looking back at the table. He was Skull, and if he didnt want to answer a question, he wouldn't. One could argue that was a cloudy trait, but he liked to believe it was something that had carried through his life.

Aside from a few attempts by the sun to goad him into giving a reaction, the meeting went quickly and painfully. It was clear no one trusted anyone, and most of the group could tell that there wasn't the right feel to the sky, especially after her comment on him. A foolish thing to do, even if the end result would be favorable to her. It was a risk she shouldn't have taken, but since she did and it failed, it made her look even worse, no matter what else she said in the meeting.

He wouldn't dwell on the curse, aside from the fact that it had his instincts and his beliefs at war with each other. His title as the Cloud Arcobaleno was a new name, a new title to train and live up to. However, it meant shackles, a total lack of freedom and choice, a tie that kept him on the ground. There was a constant war, and it made him more irritatable, more cloud-like, more willing to be violent with the rest of the group and the ability to let lose and destroy large swaths of land. He even started carrying a weapon, a gun that he would keep in his belt, along with an assortment of other goodies and toys. 

He kept his helmet, even though he was grounded. It meant too much to just throw it somewhere and be done.

He became destructive, a time bomb, and there was something ironic about that.

After Tsuna, after the Battles of the Rainbow, after the end of the Arcobaleno, he finally understood. All the memories he couldn't reach, all the fog that sometimes blocked things from him, all the brief visual hallucinations that left him feeling bitter and angry made sense. His yearning for freedom, his hunger for violence, his destructive tendencies, all of it finally made sense.

Jason Todd laughed bitterly at the irony. He was a cloud, someone who yearned for freedom, who kept their distance and refused to work with others. He even had a new helmet, a symbol of his rebirth so blatant, he was sure even the dumbest of Batman's rouges gallery could get it. He felt thankful that his other self had enough intelligence to stay away from the others in the group, and he even felt himself nodding in appreciation at the gun he saw in his belt, and the other assortment of weapons kept on him. He ignored calls from the group standing in front of him and instead chose to look around. He shrugged, kept ignoring the increasingly desperate calls, and took off in a run in the opposite direction, letting out a short laugh as he propagated his speed.

Sure, the rest of his group was bound to try and search for him, but he was trained by the best.

A new life, a new world, and more freedom then he could have every imagined.

What more could he want?

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

“What the fuck,” Jason said blankly, looking at the small wall his three brothers made in front of him.

It was supposed to be a normal day and it was, up until he was greeted by an unwelcome visitation party from people he was quietly hoping to not see for a while. Preferably forever but he wasn’t particularly picky. He figured he would have a lot more time to play duck-duck-goose with the former Arcobaleno, race along highways and byways all across the country, perhaps even rob a bank or two and engage in some good old-fashioned vigilantism. Alas, he mourned, it was not meant to be.

“Hey Jason,” Dick said, nervous smile faltering when Jason just stared at the group unimpressed.

“Todd,” Damian stepped forward and Jason quirked an eyebrow, a tiny bit interested in what he would say, “we’ve been assembled by Richard to talk to you, against our will.”

“Your will,” Tim corrected, shifting his eyes to a nearby tree while Damian turned and glared at him.

“You know, as much as I’d love to stay here and play the Brady Bunch with you,” Jason allowed himself a moment of weakness and turned his head behind him, narrowing his gaze on the road that stretched for miles, “I’ve got a lot on my plate, all of which doesn’t include you. I’d best be going.” He inched his way to his bike, getting close enough where he knew he could hop on and speed off without missing the seat, but Dick spoke up again.

“I know this isn’t exactly an ideal meeting but, please,” he stepped closer and Jason moved back, “just, let us talk for a few minutes and then we’ll let you go, ok?” Dick gave him a new version of the puppy eyes and while Jason had built up an immunity to Luce’s, Dick’s were on a different level. Letting out a long exhale and ignoring Damian’s smirk, Jason stepped away from his bike, already beginning to regret acquiescing.

He refused to follow his brothers and so in a petty act of rebellion, he just plopped himself onto the grass. He had to get his kicks somehow, and being inconvenient brought him joy. As expected, Dick followed suit, taking the chance and moving in closer to Jason. Unexpectedly, however, Tim and Damian mirrored Dick, leaving a lot less space between the four and leaving Jason feeling like he hadn’t been inconvenient in the slightest.

“Well, alright. I’ll bite,” Jason said after a few seconds passed by, telling himself that he didn’t give in to the silent pressure to say something and rather, chose to take initiative and say something to get the conversation over sooner, “what is it that brought the three of you out to accost little old me?” He didn’t bother asking how they found him, even though he was technically dead and not even in the same timeline as them. Complicated stuff, he could guess, something probably to do with hidden clues and timeline jumping, maybe even a visit from an alternate dimension him, like the Future-That-Never-Was, or something.

He didn’t really care.

“It’s about your little group,” Damian huffed, glaring in confusion when Jason just laughed. A mirthless laugh, but one all the same. “What?” he asked, frustration showing.

“There is no ‘me’ in ‘group’,” he said and, wow, he regretted saying that cheesy line immediately after saying it, “I’m not with them anymore, haven’t been for a while now, actually.” He frowned, doing some quick mental math. How long has it been? Maybe a year or two and change. Not long enough.

“Either way,” Tim picked up the speaking role, taking out a small tablet from who-know-where, “there is a lot of sketchiness surrounding it. B,” Jason bared his teeth a little at the nickname but Tim plowed on, “wanted some intel on the group, but no one has been willing to give up information. We ended up hearing through the grapevine that you were a member. Fortunately, this was _after_ we sifted through all the clues your alternate dimension self left us.” Jason silently applauded that version of himself. He knew he was reliable in every dimension.

“Ok, well,” he spread his arms out, “you’ve found me. What do you want?” As much as he didn't want to speak about the complete mess the Arcobaleno were, he knew if he didn’t give in quickly and answer the questions he would end dealing with a trio of unwanted hangers-on tailing him until he did. Rip it off like a bandaid, the quicker and sooner he answered, the quicker and sooner they would be gone. Well, perhaps not gone but father away.

Much farther.

“Who is the leader?” Tim immediately asked and, wow, ok, Jason wasn’t expecting the first question to be so complicated to answer.

“It’s...complicated,” Jason answered after thinking a bit, holding his arms up when two glares and a confused look were sent his way, “I literally couldn’t have answered this fully maybe about two years back, so be grateful I’m even gonna give you an answer.” He took a breath.

“Alright, in the beginning, everyone thought the leader was Luce. She was the Giglio Nero Donna at the time, before you ask. Obviously she’s dead now, good riddance,” he muttered under his breath before continuing, “and we followed her lead, then her daughter Aria’s lead, then Aria’s daughter Yuni. However, we found out later that an alien named Checkerface or Kawahira, or the name I’m pretty partial to, The Asshole, was really the guy behind it all. We weren’t the first generation, yada yada yada, we were slated to die, blah blah blah, one dystopian murder future time travel adventure later, the guy’s dead. Hurrah. So now the Arcobaleno follow Reborn, otherwise known as Renato.” Jason put out his arms and leaned back, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards at Dick’s surprised face and Damain’s blank one. He couldn’t see Tim’s because he was frantically tapping the tablet screen, but he imagined one similar to Dick’s.

Ah, the simple joys in life.

“Um-” Dick started, but was interrupted by Jason’s hand that briefly lifted out of position and then quickly returned.

“No, I’m not repeating. You better got what you wanted out of that Tim.” Jason narrowed his eyes but Tim didn’t pay attention, attention still glued to his tablet.

"Hierarchy?" Was the next question, well, perhaps more so a statement. Jason was rather impressed, Tim was taking no extra time to get what he wanted.

"Well obviously, my knowledge right now is a bit old, so it could be right, could be wrong." He tilted his head and continued, "Out of the seven original Arcobaleno, Luce and Reborn were at the top. I could wager a guess and say Viper would be next, and then Fon. Don't laugh, but I was at the bottom. Verde was above me, and then above him, Lal and Colonnello would swap places often."

Jason wasn't exactly happy about his placement in the group, but it served him well now that he struck out on his own. No one was looking for "The Weakest Arcobaleno", which meant traveling was a whole lot easier. He also had no responsibilities to uphold, which allowed him to leave in the first place.

"Tch," Damian tsk-ed, rolling his eyes, "Just like you Todd, to be at the bottom."

"Damian." Dick said, disapproval in his tone.

"Listen, it's not like I _wanted_ to be in that group. If I could get away with doing nothing and being a nuisance and take it out on them, I did what I had to do and took that position. Besides," Jason scoffed, lifting a hand and running it through his hair, "when I beat the ones they'll send after me to a pulp, their expressions will be priceless." He snickered to himself while Damian looked a bit thoughtful and Dick looked a bit exasperated. Tim kept tapping at the tablet when the four of them whipped their heads in the direction of the treeline, the one Tim had glanced at earlier, Jason taking pride in the fact that he was just a split second faster than the other three.

"Well?" Jason didn't move, having already known there were more unwanted guests, albeit a lot more unwanted than his brothers, straight from the beginning.

"Brothers," he began, lifting himself off the ground and stretching, "looks as if we'll, _unfortunately_ , need to finish this conversation at a later time." He took the opportunity to hop into his bike and start the engine, "Well, hope to see you losers never. Adios!" And took off.

Ah, the pleasure in getting the last word in. Never fails to feel great.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess this is multi-chaptered now?
> 
> Also, watch out, another niche Skull-is fic will be coming soon, a bit different than my others in some ways and a lot different in other ways.


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

He was gonna be honest, this was genuinely the worst possible outcome.

“Lackey,” he heard Reborn growl and, yeah, certainly the worst timeline both literally and figuratively. It had been an objectively garbage couple of weeks, needing to evade both his ‘estranged’ family and ‘deranged’  _ former  _ co-workers. Perhaps his reasoning for the former was petty, but the latter at least had a semi-rational reasoning: Tsuna.

Yeah, perhaps he was paranoid and overthinking it but in his defense he was raised into the typical Bat-paranoia which, paired with Tsuna’s freakish pinpoint accuracy with his Intuition? Jason thought he had a pretty solid case to be so evasive. He  _ knew  _ Tsuna, perhaps not as well as his friends or even his close acquaintances, but he knew enough. As soon as Tsuna got even an inkling about either his location or his dimension-traveling brothers, Reborn would know immediately after. And if Reborn got his hands on information like that, he would immediately tell the rest of the Arcobaleno and begin to hunt Jason down.

Which is exactly what happened. 

Fortunately, and Jason sent prayers to whatever lame-ass deity was out there in thanks, it was only the first bit of his prediction that came through. It meant he wouldn’t have to explain anything, but he figured that even with that nice bit of news, any meeting of his brothers and his former co-workers would somehow end up in disaster. And, well, he wasn’t wrong.

“Jason?” He heard Dick say, and honestly, way to go. He figured, after years of working with ‘Code-Names-Only’, ‘I-Am-The-Night’, Batman himself, he’d at  _ least  _ know not to give out his real name? To the people Jason knows he made very clear in the last conversation he had,  _ he was on bad terms with _ ? Fortunately, Damian was there to helpfully remind Dick of this fact, to which Jason scrunched his nose a bit at. That was the first and last time he would ever put ‘fortunately’ and ‘Damian’ in a sentence together without an ‘un’ in front.

“Nightwing! Code names in the field! What if Father were here? He’d say-”

“‘Code names only.’” Tim said tonelessly, rolling his eyes at Damian’s sneer. Man, Jason would give anything to have just slightly better-adjusted siblings. Like, perhaps, ones that haven’t gone out to fight crime while still needing to hand in algebra homework and dealing with Repressed Emotions™. He also included himself in that criticism. It was a technique he learned from the nice, on-call therapist in the Carcassa and, wow, he completely forgot about those guys for a bit.

“Now ladies,” he smirked, breaking the brewing tension between Damian and Tim, “I know some people here have questions they’d like answered. To put that expectation five-feet-under,” he snickered at the two groans and one scoff from his brothers, “I’ll give my answer, no.” He crossed his arms and grinned, looking at the Arcobaleno. They didn’t look too happy, expect for Fon who just nodded and Viper who didn’t make noticeable motions. Verde wasn’t even there, which made sense, considering he didn’t care for anything aside from science and skirting the unethical and ok-we-need-to-arrest-you-now line. Taking his place in the group was Tsuna and for some odd reason, Hibari. Perhaps he was there for intimidation, not that it would work on Jason. Good effort though.

Turning his gaze from the Arcobaleno to Tsuna, he noticed his eyes widen and his face gain an alarming paleness. Ah, he thought, must have figured out who the people next to him were. Huh, Jason hadn’t really pegged him as an American comics fan but, hey, kinda funny. And if it wasn’t that but his Intuition telling him then, yikes, that was a whole other can of worms to open. Preferably opened never but it seemed like it would be sooner rather than later.

“Lackey,” Reborn growled again and Jason rolled his eyes. He thought he could remember better insults when he was All-Skull-No-Jason but perhaps he was remembering someone else who was insulting him. Jason wasn’t going to lie, he was kinda disappointed. Maybe he had too much faith in the animosity the Arcobaleno held for him.

“Listen, as much as my brothers and I would like to beat the sh-” there was a Tsuna present, “...stuffing out of you, we have our own issues to deal with. So let’s wrap this up, let us go, and we can continue pretending not to see each other until, presumably and preferably, the end of time.” He ignored the two jabs to his side and Damian’s hiss of “don’t presume to know what I want,  _ Hood _ .”

“Brothers?” He heard Tsuna ask faintly and, ugh, he can’t believe he let that slip. Way to go Todd. However, none of the Arcobaleno seemed to figure out what had Tsuna so nervous, which was great.

“I didn’t stutter,” he said calmly, which just made Tsuna’s pallor become even more pale.

“None of my information indicates you have brothers. Who are they?” Viper demanded, small waves of Mist-aggression surrounding them.

“None of your business,” the four of them chorused, with Tim adding on, “I’ll make sure you never find out.”

“Skull,” Fon began, and Jason was thankful he didn't use his real name, “may we know where you might be going next?” Jason just stared for a little bit, before turning to look at his brothers, two of whom just shrugged and the other raising one eyebrow.

“I guess I’ll just be on the road. Nothing too fancy.” He made that up on the spot, since he had no idea what he was going to do. Somehow go back to Gotham with his brothers and deal with continuous daily trauma, or stay stranded in his new universe? Too much thinking for a couple of seconds, so he just used a copout answer.

“Right,” Fon murmured, and Jason turned to look at the rest of the group.

"Now, I see that you are all just waiting to ambush me again when you think I'll be alone and try to force answers out of me but you're gonna be straight outta luck. Just because I might be  _ Lackey _ to you, does not mean I am to everyone else." Jason frowned and consciously moved closer to his brothers, "Perhaps I've been too lenient with you in regards to my image, but from here on out, I will not hesitate to show why I'm so closely tied with, and to, them." He briefly splayed out his arms before tucking his hands into his jacket pockets.

It seemed as if he unconsciously made up his mind on where he was going. As the saying went, family doesn't end with blood or whatever. He stopped paying attention to the Arcobaleno and hummed, thinking about how he could possibly move the Carcassa back with him to Gotham when he saw a flash of movement.

Immediately snapping out of his thoughts, Jason moved into action, throwing the figure over his shoulder and slamming them onto the ground, fingers quickly finding a nervous point and jabbing it. Lal could only turn her head and scowl, but Jason didn't pay too much attention to either her nor Colonnello, who gave him a glare.

"Well, the League training certainly didn't go away," he said dryly, rolling his eyes at Dick's frown and Damian's brief squint. "Please tell me you haven't literally forgotten about that? I can excuse the All-Caste stuff because," he waved his hands, "you know, timeline things. But the League, really?"

"Not as if that was really on our minds when you first started making waves," Tim said, shrugging. "We had a bit more to worry about at the time like, oh, I don't know, murder?" Ignoring the sharp inhale he heard from Tsuna because the Arcobaleno wouldn't care about something like that, Jason grinned. "Aw, Double R, you really  _ did _ care! Big Bird, you really coulda learned something from him on caring about me back in the old days."

Dick flinched and Jason briefly felt bad before remembering they had an audience and he realized he really didn't want to let family scuffles be aired to the world. Well, at least to the Arcobaleno.

"Ok, nice chat and all, but I really gotta get going. You know, places to be, things to do, possible law violations to commit, small things. Think of this as a high school reunion, we see each other once and then conveniently lose any subsequent invitations. I don't know, 's not like I ever graduated high school, I was too busy being dead and then murdering." He muttered the last part but judging from the uncomfortable vibes he suddenly felt, people heard him.

"Good luck R-Ja-Skull?" Tsuna asked, phrase ending on a question and Jason swore that the first thing Tsuna almost said had better been Red Hood or he would lose it. Nice that he used Skull though.

"Hmm," was all Jason offered in answer before minutely tilting his head and moved over to his bike parked nearby.

"Birds, you know where to find me. I'm going with," he directed to his brothers without looking back, before hopping on and driving off.

He needed a nap.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...I don't really know what I wrote. No, literally. Sorry if this is really OOC but I'm feeling OOC irl so... I think this fic has one more chapter left before its finished.
> 
> Happy belated Christmas/early New Years?


	4. Chapter 4

* * *

His salvation turned out to be a small portal in a backwater town in the middle of Nowhere, Potential Murder Town.

Honestly, a fitting place for a portal to Gotham.

After exiting the impromptu meeting with his former colleagues, Jason met up with his brothers at a local diner near where they first met up, only about three towns away. Getting straight down to business, they hammered out a vague plan to squirrel the Carcassa away with them in their return trip to Gotham. Only stuck for a few moments, Jason had cheerfully piped up that if he used his flames, he could possibly propagate the entrance of the portal for a few minutes and thus allow the Carcassa's blimp to squeeze through. Sure, he might have only tested them out a little bit on small things like the amount of gas in his bike, the number of small projectiles he kept on him at all times, and maybe some precious metals that he sold off for money but that last part was between him and the poor pawn shop employee. This meant that at least the properties of his flames worked, but they might not work on the metaphysical, mystical portal made of space dust or whatever.

His brothers were unable to argue why that might not work but still tried to find reasons as to why it would. In the middle of a potential hypothetical, they all heard a small growl from two tables over and whipped their heads over to see a snarling Hibari Kyouya.

“Ah,” Jason chuckled nervously, running his hand through his hair on one side of his head. Faced with one glare and two confused looks, he shrugged.

“Hibari’s just kinda like that. If he calls me an her-”,

“Herbivore.”

“Damn.” Jason rolled his eyes when Hibari spawned right next to their table. “You know, if you wanted a fight you could have just chased me down before I went back on the grid. I know you would have used your little Disciplinary members to hunt me down.”

“Disciplinary members?” Dick politely asked, turning his attention back to Jason which caused Hibari to lightly snarl.

"Yeah, it’s this violent school club that used to patrol the Namimori Middle School. I only know about it because from what I understand Tsuna was bullied when he went there, and I wanted to know the players there,” He shrugged, leaning his head into his hand, “especially since my experience at Gotham Academy was no different.”

“What do you want?” Damian asked Hibari, eyes narrowed.

“I want to fight the herbivore.” He said simply, which, yeah, made sense considering the last time Jason and Hibari clashed, it was a beatdown on Jason’s side. To be fair, however, he was Skull and hiding his skills from the others at that point in time, so it wasn’t much of a fight.

“Yeah, sure, why not,” Jason scooted out of the booth and slid his jacket on, “a little bit of action before I leave wouldn't hurt. Besides, I might even have a little fun.” The smile he gave matched the one that slid on Hibari’s face, a smile that wasn’t really a smile but more a bearing of teeth.

“Right, I guess we’ll just start getting ready to leave?” Tim said, a question in the statement

“Yeah, sure,” Jason waved a hand, “I already settled all my affairs and whatnot, left a will and all that jazz. I've also wiped my safehouses and left Oodako with the Carcassa. Uh, I guess I’ll meet up at the rift when I’m done here.”

The party of five left the diner and once Jason and Hibari were far enough away to not cause a ruckus, Hibari immediately took out his tonfas and started swinging, purple flames on the ends of the weapons. Jason just dodged, easily maneuvering away from the hits and jabs. After a minute or two, Jason decided to get a little bit serious, taking out two of the small knives he kept on his person, covering the blades in his own flames. 

The two kept on fighting, almost becoming blurs of two different colored purples, one a vivid violet and the other a dark plum. Once reaching the four-minute mark, Jason decided to end it and, praying that that crazy old dude who claimed he could make flame conductive clothing and armor was actually telling the truth, sent flames to the bracers on his arms and to the outside of his boots. Doing this, he propagated the strength they could withstand and used his bracers to allow Hibari’s tonfa hits to land on them and then used his foot to kick out at Hibari’s ankle and sent him down.

Putting out his flames, he moved over a bit and quirked an eyebrow at Hibari’s stillness, his figure just laying still in the grass.

“You held back omnivore,” Hibari accused, briefly struggling to stand on his two feet. Jason rolled his eyes.

“Uh, yeah. If I didn’t, you would probably be dead and then I’d have to face the Look from my family for at least a week. Not that I particularly care, but it would be majorly inconvenient.” He lied, of course he’d care. He just started to claw his way back into the family’s good graces, his odd relationship with Damian being an outlier.

“Hn.” Hibari just hummed, narrowing his eyes briefly at Jason before he turned and began walking back in the direction of the diner.

“...Right” Jason murmured, following a few paces behind. He took out his burner phone and called the Carcassa's stand-in boss, instructing them to fly quickly out to his location. He ended up having to soothe the panicking boss, reassuring them that he wasn’t in some sort of danger, and that, no, he hadn’t landed in the middle of the ocean again. Once he settled them down he had made his way towards his bike and hopped on, the screech of his wheels and the dust that was kicked up made him feel cool. Kinda pathetic, but he took his victories when he could.

The portal was hard to miss since it was a mass of what looked to be space dust. He got off his bike and waved at his brothers, helmet tucked under his arm.

“I called the Carcassa and they should be here any second. Any issues?” He greeted.

“Well, the teen came by and wished us good luck, though he seemed to be really nervous,” Dick said, shrugging.

“That’s it? Hm, either the Arcobaleno have finally got their wits again, or we’re gonna have our Going Away Party Part Two: Electric Boogaloo.” Jason said cheerfully, undisturbed by the two looks of confusion he got.

“How did, how did you get your voice to capitalize that?” Tim asked, tone weary.

“Oh Tim,” Jason patted him on the shoulder briefly, “It’s something that comes with age. I can also do italics as well. Dick’s good at doing bold and Damian’s got underlining. You’ll find something you’re good at.” Tim just looked concerned but Jason happily ignored him and moved closer to the portal.

“Well, the Carcassa just arrived,” Jason pointed upwards at the blip and even Dick did a double-take at the fact that there was a giant blimp above them but no shadow, “So now I guess I’ll do my funny little magic and make this portal large. Uh, I’d say back up just in case but you’ll have to do that anyway.”

He closed his eyes and focused, taking the giant ball of purple that laid next to a small ball of what Jason assumed was the Lazarus Pit and feeding the color down to his hands, intent focused on propagating size. After a few moments, he was confident he could do it without consciously looking and doing and so he opened his eyes, only to be greeted by the portal looming over him and the width greater than a decently sized bunch of trees.

“Ah,” was all he could say, slightly taken aback at just how large the portal got. “Right!” He held up his hands in one of the signals he had taught to the Carcassa and motioned to the portal, telling the pilot to fly through. He had to quickly move out of the way, the blimp quickly lowering down and then flying through. He tilted his head at his brothers who all quickly followed, but he stayed a second longer to look at the area around him that he would be leaving. He could admit to himself that he would miss the world, but he had a duty and the only thing keeping him was the opportunity for freedom. However, he figured he could find his own freedom back in his home universe, perhaps in Canada or something, far away from Gotham and her demons.

He focused his flames to shrink the portal small enough for him to pass and then stepped through, pulling all his flames from the portal causing it to pop once he had fully gone through.

He was back in Gotham, and back to business.

"So, Todd, Oodako?"

"Shut up Damian."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this is the end I swear. I'm working on a different fic(s), but Genshin Impact literally takes up hours of my day, every day.
> 
> Add me?: UID 615489416

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, sorry that this is the only thing I've posted in a month. I got a lot of stuff going on, and for my HG au, I think I just need to rewrite the chapter I've written. I haven't given up, but there have been a few close calls.
> 
> Also this was all done on mobile, so forgive me for any formatting errors until I get around to properly fixing any.


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